Ideuhs are incipient thoughts

October 2010

October 23, 2010

In my previous post I introduced Sato Kashiwa's great book on Creative Thinking and talked about his first three principles, which I boil down to questioning assumptions, questioning others, and questioning ourselves. One of Japan's great contemporary designers, Sato sees design as a way to solve his clients' business problems. In order to come up with really great solutions, we first need to grasp the essential problem we're trying to solve. Hence the importance Sato places on questioning everything at the beginning of every project, and rigorously interviewing his clients to make sure the real problem is mutually understood.

Being "design mindful" or "thinking like a designer," as Garr Reynolds observes, is an approach to life that even people who aren't designers can use to help solve any number of everyday problems. For example, as a writer and a business-person, I attempt to embrace the principle of "restraint" - attempting to omit what isn't absolutely necessary.

Sato's next two principles focus on the importance of visualization to help communicate our ideas. If "creative thinking" is about discovering creative ways to solve problems, it's also about heightening our ability to communicate. As Sato repeatedly notes, "it's not easy for people to understand each other." All of Sato's creative thinking principles are essentially guides for better communication as a way for understanding and solving business and even personal problems.

4. Cultivate the habit of mitate. - Communicating the essence through analogy.

Mitate is a Japanese word that Sato attributes to tea ceremony and other Zen arts. Roughly translated, it means "analogy." Most of us have seen photos of Zen gardens, in which a few large ornamental rocks are carefully arranged within an expanse of carefully raked sand. The effect is like looking at islands in the sea. Part of the beauty of traditional Japanese gardens is that, within a small space, they evoke much larger landscapes.

In my previous post I mentioned an ad campaign for a portable photo printer that we compared to having a photo lab wherever you went. We created a series of ads in which we placed the printer in various settings like a wedding party or on the sidelines of a soccer game, together with a neon sign that read "85-Second Photo Lab." That is an example of mitate. But we can just call it analogy.

Sato says that making connections between different objects is an exercise in creative thinking that helps train the mind to grasp the essence of things, and strengthens our communicative power. To practice, he suggests making comparisons between your job and unrelated fields. For example, Sato frequently likens art directors to doctors. An art director. Like a doctor diagnosing a patient, art directors diagnose their clients' business problems and prescribe ways to treat them through design.

Great presenters use analogy to make connections that cause us to look at things from a new and different angle. The next time you need to sell an important concept, try coming up with some strong visual analogies beforehand to help make the connection with your audience.

5. Draw your work. - Visuals communicate more powerfully than words.

Mitate, or analogy, is a way of communicating pictures through words. But as Sato point out, "there are also times when it's easier to communicate without using words." There are times when it's better to simply draw pictures.

Sato makes the point that some of his most powerful product designs started from simple line drawings; for example, a cell phone proposal consisted of little more than a circle within a rectangle.

However, you don't have to be a designer for pictures to make a difference in your work. In advertising, we frequently use charts and diagrams to illustrate our plans without overloading our clients with words. The fact is, our brains process visual information more easily. I've written in a previous post about the power of infographics.

Nevertheless, most of us still treat diagrams almost as works of art in themselves. We could all benefit from getting nto the habit of using conceptual sketches to support everyday discussions. There is a great book by David Sibbet called Visual Meetings that shows how you can visually facilitate meetings. "Visualization," Sibbet writes, "Is a powerful way to resolve confusions in groups that arise from inadequate or conflicting mental models."

Next time you have a one-on-one meeting with a colleague or client, try using your notebook to sketch out ideas on the spot and see how they react. You might find that you're communicating more effectively, and mutually come up with some really creative ideas!